GM’s Shop-Click-Drive: Do the Math
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal about General Motors’ Shop-Click-Drive initiative shows just how far the automotive industry has to go before consumers have the ability to complete the entire car buying transaction online.
GM created Shop-Click-Drive to make it easier for their customers to buy their cars online. It apparently took hundreds (if not thousands according to the article) of programmers two years to develop the online platform.
The revealing part in the article, Why GM Hired 8,000 Programmers, are the numbers, which, frankly, are not impressive. You wouldn’t know that from reading the article, though, which failed to put the numbers into context.
Over the first year of the Shop-Click-Drive initiative, GM reports that about 1,800 of its 4,300 dealerships participated. Those 1,800 dealers sold 15,000 vehicles to customers that used Shop-Click-Drive at some point in their buying process.
Do the math — 15,000 sales divided by 1,800 dealerships equals 8.3 sales per dealership generated by Shop-Click-Drive last year. GM says in the article that the closing ratios are about 30% for Shop-Click-Drive — 8% higher than the typical third party lead provider.
The initiative as a long way to go, if it survives. Just based on the fact that GM is talking to the Wall Street Journal abut it indicates that it plans to continue the program — even with it’s less than stellar numbers, My guess is that GM continues to tweak and add to it.
One of the first things that should be on the agenda is giving customers the ability to save where they are in the process and to integrate it into the offline process as much as possible. (AutoNation is light years ahead in its AutoNation Express initiative).
We could go on about the myriad of items Shop-Click-Drive needs for it to even resemble a true online buying platform. For now, it’s just another lead generator that’s a little more dressed.
[highlight color=”#CCE6FF” font=”black”]This article was written and originally published by Cliff Banks of The Banks Report. Get the inside scoop on what’s going on in the Automotive Retail space and sign up for The Banks Report. [/highlight]
What do you think..will this benefit and enhance the car purchasing experience or will it be nothing more than another lead source for dealers?
